This might be one of our toughest challenges since launching “RMF” over a year and a half ago, to write something timely or meaningful about the Super Bowl that hasn’t already been said. What event draws more press ink and microphone babble than the NFL’s championship game? This is the event, after all, where the advertisements get more conversation than practically the whole season of regular prime time television – advertisements that corporate America spends millions to broadcast. We’ve already opined on the Tim Tebow pro choose life campaign. If anyone thinks the left wing in this country is still the voice of tolerance their uproar against what is reported to be a mild-mannered, upbeat presentation, that person would be sadly mistaken.
What more can be said about the match of Drew Brees versus Peyton Manning or how Payton’s dad Archie labored for years as QB for the hapless New Orleans Saints or that Peyton grew up and played high school football in Saints Country.
We’ve seen how far the NFL’s marketing machine reaches and the absurdity of the application of intellectual property in some instances. Some New Orleans fans found out that their time-honored cheer of endearment, “Who dat?” has been booked with an NFL trademark. To that controversy we say, “What dat all about?”
Okay, let’s try to do what our local sportscasters do, look for the local angle. Oops, maybe we don’t want to go there because it brings memories of that dreaded cold March night, 1984 when the Mayflower vans took our football memories and dreams to Indianapolis. Many Baltimore fans still haven’t gotten over that and will go to their graves hating what Robert Irsay did to the Colts. While Irsay truly was a drunken old sot, those of us who saw the Ravens play in a hastily gussied up Memorial Stadium perhaps could finally see that the stadium our fathers were proud to make the “World’s Loudest Outdoors Insane Asylum” was a total disaster as a football field. Think of where the seating bowl ends in the upper deck or what the lower seats are like surrounding that which used to be the Orioles’ outfield. There sure is some irony that the facility for which the Colts bolted town like so many other sports venues is no longer standing. We have our M&T Bank Stadium, one of the finest outdoor facilities in all of football where we’ve patiently and quietly accepted artificial turf and perhaps think those terrible towels people in Pittsburgh should do the same for much the same reasons we made the change.
Which brings our little sound-off to the legacy of Colts field goal kicker, Matt Stover, Stover is a man we respect so deeply here in Baltimore. We’d be tempted to cheer for the Colts just so Matt could earn another Super Bowl ring. Matt was deemed too old for the Ravens as the soul survivor to make the trip from Cleveland to Baltimore. If there were ever an athlete parents could look to as the perfect roll model for their kids, Matt Stover stands peerless. When teammates want to look to a fellow who is looking out for them and is professional to the highest degree? That’s Matt Stover. When the game’s on the line with the clock running out and three points can win the game, fans and the head coach know, that’s Matt Stover time. Even the most miserable jilted Baltimore Colts fans have to have a place in their hearts for Matt Sunday night.
Add it all up, it’s easy to cheer for New Orleans, a city that has been through so much in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What American city has been through so much? We think of the horrible images that were broadcast from the New Orleans Superdome and remember how triumphant their first home game, a dramatic victory on Monday night football just one year later was. The Saints truly represent the unity, hopes, and dreams of a region on the rebound a little over four years after one of the most horrible natural disasters to hit the United States.
What more can be said about the match of Drew Brees versus Peyton Manning or how Payton’s dad Archie labored for years as QB for the hapless New Orleans Saints or that Peyton grew up and played high school football in Saints Country.
We’ve seen how far the NFL’s marketing machine reaches and the absurdity of the application of intellectual property in some instances. Some New Orleans fans found out that their time-honored cheer of endearment, “Who dat?” has been booked with an NFL trademark. To that controversy we say, “What dat all about?”
Okay, let’s try to do what our local sportscasters do, look for the local angle. Oops, maybe we don’t want to go there because it brings memories of that dreaded cold March night, 1984 when the Mayflower vans took our football memories and dreams to Indianapolis. Many Baltimore fans still haven’t gotten over that and will go to their graves hating what Robert Irsay did to the Colts. While Irsay truly was a drunken old sot, those of us who saw the Ravens play in a hastily gussied up Memorial Stadium perhaps could finally see that the stadium our fathers were proud to make the “World’s Loudest Outdoors Insane Asylum” was a total disaster as a football field. Think of where the seating bowl ends in the upper deck or what the lower seats are like surrounding that which used to be the Orioles’ outfield. There sure is some irony that the facility for which the Colts bolted town like so many other sports venues is no longer standing. We have our M&T Bank Stadium, one of the finest outdoor facilities in all of football where we’ve patiently and quietly accepted artificial turf and perhaps think those terrible towels people in Pittsburgh should do the same for much the same reasons we made the change.
Which brings our little sound-off to the legacy of Colts field goal kicker, Matt Stover, Stover is a man we respect so deeply here in Baltimore. We’d be tempted to cheer for the Colts just so Matt could earn another Super Bowl ring. Matt was deemed too old for the Ravens as the soul survivor to make the trip from Cleveland to Baltimore. If there were ever an athlete parents could look to as the perfect roll model for their kids, Matt Stover stands peerless. When teammates want to look to a fellow who is looking out for them and is professional to the highest degree? That’s Matt Stover. When the game’s on the line with the clock running out and three points can win the game, fans and the head coach know, that’s Matt Stover time. Even the most miserable jilted Baltimore Colts fans have to have a place in their hearts for Matt Sunday night.
Add it all up, it’s easy to cheer for New Orleans, a city that has been through so much in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What American city has been through so much? We think of the horrible images that were broadcast from the New Orleans Superdome and remember how triumphant their first home game, a dramatic victory on Monday night football just one year later was. The Saints truly represent the unity, hopes, and dreams of a region on the rebound a little over four years after one of the most horrible natural disasters to hit the United States.
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